The entrepreneur

A brand strategist and writer, Amber Williams launched her marketing agency, PunkyFlair, just three months after giving birth to her son, Carter. She hit the ground running. In just one year, the Florida A & M University and Northwestern graduate secured contracts with feminine-facing brands like Camille Rose Naturals and the niche spa collection, Bekura Beauty. Indeed, the business took off so quickly Williams never quite had a chance to focus on exactly what kind of work she wanted to do.

The pitch

PunkyFlair specializes in shaping lifestyle brands near the start of their formation. The agency views those beginning stages as the most crucial time to develop and craft a brand’s identity. “It’s a crowded marketplace! What sets a commodity product line apart from one with a cult following that can cut through the clutter is branding,” Williams says.

Her agency takes a half science, half art approach to building brands by first analyzing the market environment. How does this product or offering solve a problem? For whom? What percentage of the market will likely buy into this? After crunching the numbers and determining the opportunity, “the fun begins,” Williams says. Her team of strategists then work to undercover the brand’s values that resonate most with the target consumer. This serves as the foundation for crafting the brand story and shaping its verbal and visual identity. “It’s all about the emotional connection that a brand can foster with its audience,” Williams explains, “That is what attracts, keeps, and up-sells the customer for a lifetime. A product or service can be replicated, but a strong brand cannot.”


Business Rx: PunkyFlair gets served a taste of its own marketing medicine.